RULES, ORDERS, AND STATUTES 



OF 



HARVARD COLLEGE 

INSTITUTED BY THE PRESIDENT AND 
COUNCIL OF NEW ENGLAND 

23d July, 1686 



Presented at a Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society 
in March, 1876; with Remarks by the Secretary 



RULES, ORDERS, AND STATUTES 



OF 



HARVARD COLLEGE 



INSTITUTED BY TEE PRESIDENT AND 
COUNCIL OF NEW ENGLAND 

23d July, 1686 



Presented at a Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society 
in March, 1876; with Remarks by the Secretary 



>>*;< 



CAMBRIDGE 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON 
1876 






Gift 
tdwn L. Whitney 

DEC 8- 1938 






2i 



LAWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 

1686. 



At a stated meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, on the 8th of March, 1876, the Recording Secretary, 
Mr. Deane, read the following letter from Prof. Charles 
Eliot Norton, of Cambridge, transmitting an early copy of 
the laws of Harvard College : — 

Cambridge, March 7, 1876. 

My dear Mr. Deane, — A college lecture will prevent me, much 
to my regret, from being present at the next meeting of the Historical 
Society. 

I was much interested in the published account of Dr. Green's com- 
munication at the last meeting concerning an early copy of the Laws 
of Harvard College. 

I send you, herewith, a copy of the Rules, Statutes, and Ordinances 
of the College, of somewhat later date, 1686; which may be worth 
comparing with the earlier manuscript. 

This is of interest, as you will notice, from having pasted into it the 
Admittatur of President Leverett, signed by President Urian Oakes. 

Toward the end of the little book is a curious admonition of one 
Ballantine for the sin of excessive drinking. A certain John Ballan- 
tine graduated in 1694. If this be the person admonished, the ad- 
monition would probably have been administered by Increase Mather. 
By a comparison of the citation from the Statutes in the admonition, 
with the similar passage on page 3, it would seem that both were writ- 
ten by the same person. 

This little manuscript came, so far as I can ascertain, from the 
papers of old Professor Wigglesworth. 

Should the Society wish to print it or any part of it, I shall be 
pleased to leave it in your hands so long as it may be needed for this 
purpose. 

I am sincerely yours, 

C. E. Norton. 
Charles Deane, Esq., Kecording Secretary. 



Mr. Deane proceeded : — 

This little manuscript seems to be a memorandum book 
of Tutor John Leverett, afterwards President, whose admit- 
tatur to Harvard College is pasted inside of the second leaf.* 
A number of matters relating to the College are entered in the 
book, all in his well-known hand. 

On the first three pages he has entered the code of laws for 
the government of the College, established by the President 
and Council of New England in the brief presidency of Joseph 
Dudley, in the year 1686. The unhappy condition of the 
College, for a number of years after the dissolution of the 
colony charter in 1684, is thus referred to by Mr. Quincy in 
the first volume of his " History of the College," at pages 
57,58: — 

" During the period which elapsed between the dissolution of the old 
charter of the colony in 1 684, and the arrival of the new charter in 1692, 
the College partook of the embarrassments of the colony. The public 
records of the latter, for several years, are lost ; and those of the for- 
mer are extremely deficient. It appears, however, from such of them 
as remain, that Joseph Dudley, who held, between May and December, 
in the year 1686, the commission of President of the colony; and 
William Stoughton, who held, during the same time, that of Deputy 
President, availed themselves of their transitory power to place the 
College on a basis adapted to the uncertainty which hung over its 
destinies in common with those of the colony. On the 23d of July, in 
that year, they, with their Council, met at Cambridge, and appointed 
Increase Mather Rector, and John Leverett and Thomas [William] 
Brattle Tutors ; enjoining upon the Rector to make his ' usual visita- 
tions,' and vesting in the two last ' the government ' of the College." 

The manuscript College-Book, No. IV., begins with the 
meeting at Cambridge, 23d July, 1686 ; and the following is 
a copy of the record of that meeting, in the handwriting of 
Leverett : — 



* Augusti 23°, 1676. Admittatur Johannes Leverettus in Collegium Harvard- 
inum, per me Urianum Oakes, Presidem. 

Daniel Gookin ) 

& > Sociis. 

Ammi Ruhamah Corlett, ) 



Harvard Colledge. 

f Joseph Dudley, Esq., Pres a .* At a meeting of the Ilon- 

W M Stoughton, Esq., D. Pres*.! ourable President and Coun- 

|Maj. Jx" Pinchon cilj at Cambridge, July 23°, 

Present Maj. Pet. Bulkley a D , 16 |g 

ICapt. Waite Wixthorpe }• Esq" r . . , , 

Bartholomew Gidxey Jt was unanimously agreed 

Jx° Usher upon and declared, 

V ' 1. That the Rev d M r In- 

crease Mather be desired to accept the Rectorship of the Colledge and 
make his usual Visitations. 

2. That M* Ju° Leverett and M r W n Brattle be the Tuto r \ and 
enter upon the Government of the Colledge, and manage the publick 
reading in the hall. 

3. That Charlestown ferry and M r Penoyer's Legacy, i.e. one moiety 
of it, as it falleth, be settled upon the s d Tuto™ as their Sallary. 

4. That their Pupills each of them pay to their Respective Tuto™ 
ten Shillings p Quarter for their Tuition. 

5. That Andrew Boardman, the Cooke of the Colledge, do hence- 
forward manage the office of Steward in the manner as of late. 

This " Dudley Code " of laws (if I may thus designate it), 
bears the same date as the meeting at Cambridge ; namely, 
" 10° calencl. Sextil. Anno Domini, 1686 " ; and it may be 
added that the code is entered in College-Book, No. IV., at 
pages 13 and 14, in Leverett's hand. 

This Code, largely compiled from the previous one in 
Quincy, I. 577-579, has never been printed, and I have never 
seen any reference in print to the existence of such a code. 
The Statutes in Mather's " Magnalia," Book IV. pp. 132-134 
(probably those that were in force when that work was 
completed in 1698), though similar to the greater part of 
these, are more numerous. The preamble also has been 
changed, and the old title of President restored, in the 
Mather copy. The preamble or heading of this Dudley 
Code may be rendered thus : " The rules, orders, and statutes, 
approved and constituted by the Honorable President and 
Council of the Territory and Dominion of our Lord the King, 
in New England, to which scholars admitted, and to be ad- 
mitted, into Harvard College, are to be obedient, for the pro- 
motion of good letters and manners, during the pleasure 
of his most serene royal Majesty, or until it is otherwise 
ordered." 



This memorandum book contains next, on page 4, a minute 
of an admonition of one E. G., 23 April, 1688 : and a minute 
that on 12th September, of the same year, S. M. and D. D. 
publicly confessed their fault in violating the statutes, and 
promised future obedience. The triennial shows that the 
only E. G. who could have been censured in 1688 was 
Edmund Goffe, of the class of 1690. S. M. may be either 
Samuel Moody, of the class of 1689, or Samuel Mather, or 
Samuel Mansfield, or Stephen Mix of 1690. As D.D. is 
joined in the offence (the " nefarious " one of using the ver- 
nacular in their conversation within the college precincts, the 
statute forbidding which, by the way, is not in the Mather 
copy of the Laws), and as the only D. D. in College at this 
time was Daniel Dennison, of the class of 1690, probably one 
of the S. M.'s of that class is the person referred to. 

Next follow the forms of presenting and admitting candi- 
dates for degrees, — the same as those in use in President 
Dunster's time, as given by Quincy, I. 580, except that the 
" Placetne " is added in the margin. President Leverett 
notes that he took these forms from the archives of the Col- 
lege, 1 July, 1690. 

On the next page is an extract from the Statutes of the 
University of Oxford, the section " on the respect to be paid 
by Junior Students to their Seniors " ; * and then, after a 
break of several blank leaves, we have three minutes con- 
cerning the monitorship. Lord (Joseph, of the class of 
1691) is appointed monitor on " quarter-day, 17 October," 
and is continued in the office on the next quarter-day, 17 
January, 1690-91. On the April quarter-day, 1691, he ren- 
ders up the monitor's office and bill, which are committed to 
White (Ebenezer, of the class of 1692). 

The book closes with a minute of a public admonition in- 
flicted on one Ballantine (John, of class of 1694), for excessive 
drinking. No date is given. As Increase Mather, the Pres- 
ident, did not reside at the College (he did not return from 



* Every thing thus far described in this little book is in Latin. What follows 
is in English. 



England till May, 1692, after an absence of four years) ; 
and, as the language of this admonition could hardly have 
come from his lips or pen, it is probable, I think, that we have 
here the precise words used by Leverett as Senior Fellow, in 
administering it ; and it maj^ have been written out by him 
here in anticipation of this duty. But few records of cor- 
poration meetings exist during these years, and these notes of 
college punishment may be worth preserving. These public 
admonitions were administered after morning prayers, before 
all the students. The following is the language of the ad- 
monition administered to Ballantine : — 

The aspect you have before you is a sufficient explication of this 
your unusuall being called together ; nor should we have any occasion, 
if it were no more necessary for w' we have to say to him w° is y e 
single and sorrowfull object of all our eyes, then it is for your infor- 
mation, to tell you that this person stands before us convict of the sin 
of excessive drinking, w ch is a violation both of y e Divine laws and the 
Statutes of this house. 

We have amongst those R's and Statutes, by which we are to gov- 
ern you, and by which you are to be governed, such an One as this : 
[statute 11 is here recited]. 

The crime which we thus publickly animadvert upon is one of those 
atrociora delicta, which might and would have been more severely re- 
flected upon then now it is, if an early sense in the Criminall, had not 
moved Compassion to temper justice w th an allowable alloy. It is one of 
those ill things against w ch there ought not, nor ever must there be any 
Expectation in any one of a graduall rjceedure. It is as hath been said a 
breach made upon the Laws of god, and the Rules of this house. It falls 
therefore w th in the Compass of the late-recited Statute, which Statute 
also helps us with an hint of the manner of punishment we may pceed 
in. Conformably end to it we have Censured this delinquent to be 
thus publickly admonished, and to make as publick a Confession of 
Fault. 

Wherfore, you Ballantine* we are now to admonish you ; and wish 
to Almighty God thy [s/c] you may rec v our Admonitions with En- 
deavours like to our designs, w ch are that they may be for your good : 
for we have no other designs as you [sic~\ nor desires, then that you 
may so see the no pfit of that thing wherof we trust y u are now so 
ashamed, as never to repeat it, or any other so unpfitable, so ill a 
thing. 

We therefore do now w th such desires and designs admonish you ; 
and we are to admonish you of two things chiefly, 1. of the evil nat- 
ure of yo r Crime, and 2. of the way wherby you may be freed both 
from y e guilt and scandal of it. 

1. We are to admonish you of the Evil nature of your fault. You 



8 

and every body else know, that y r is no fault, but is the transgression 
of som Law. And it is as knowable that the purer any laws are the 
fouler is y e fault w ch is a transgression of y : 

The Dudley Code here follows : 

Regulaa Ordinationes et statuta approbata et constituta p Honorabiletn 

Prresidem et concilium Territorii et Dominii D. Regis in Nov- 

Anglia quibus Scholares et admissi et admittendi in Collegium 

Harvardinu ad bonas Literas et mores promovendum, subjiciendi 

sunt, dum SerenissimaB Regiae majestati ita visum fuerit, aut aliter 

mandatum. 

Dat. ex Aula Coll 1 . Harv! 

10° Calend. Sextil. Anno Domini 1686. 

Annoq e Regni R s Jacobi Secundi Secundo. 

(1.) Cuicunque fuerit peritia legendi Ciceronem, aut quemvis alium 
ejusmodi classicum authorem ex tempore, et congrue loquendi ac scri- 
bendi Latine facultas, oratione tarn soluta quam ligata, suo, ut aiunt, 
marte, et ad unguem inflectendi Graecorum nominum, verborumque 
paradigmata ; hie admissionem in collegium jure potest expectare. 
Quicunque vero destitutus fuerit hac peritia, admissionem sibi neuti- 
quam vendicet. 

(2.) Quicunque in collegium admittuntur, iidem etiam contubernio 
excipiendi sunt; et unusquisque scholarium oeconomo tres libras, cum 
hospitio eccipitur, numerabit; eidemque ad finem cujusque trimestris 
quod debitum erit, solvet : nee licet ulli academico, nondum gradu 
ornato, convictum extra collegium quaerere, nisi venia impetrata a Rec- 
tore aut suo Tutore. Si quis a. hanc Rectoris autTutoris indulgentiam 
obtinebit, consuetudinem usitatam fideliter observabit ; sin autem ali- 
quis a collegio desoedendo privatam institutionem quassierit, copia vel 
a Rectore, vel a Tutoribus ilii non facta, nullo privilegio academico 
potietur. 

(3.) Dum hie egeriut, tempus studiose redimunto, privilegio tarn 
communes omnium scholarium horas, quam suis praslectiouibus desti- 
natas, observando. 

(4.) Unusquisque scholarium exercitia omnia scholastica et religiosa, 
tam publica quam privata sibi propria, praestabit. Adhuc in statu 
pupillari degentes, sexies qnotannis rostra oratoria ascendent. Una- 
quaque septimana bis disputationibus publicis sophists interesse debent : 
Cum baccalaurei turn sophistaa analysin in aliquam S. literarum partem 
instituent. Baccalaurei singulis semestribus publice quasstiones philo- 
sophicas sub Rectoris moderamine discutient : absente vero Rectore, 
duo seniores Tutores moderatoris partes alternatim agent. 

(5.) Ne quis, sub quovis prastextu, hominum, quorum perditi ac 
discincti sunt mores, consuetudine utitor. 

(6.) Nemo in statu pupillari degens, nisi concessa priiis a Tutore, 
venia,, ex oppido exeat : nee quiscmam, cujuscuuque gradils aut ordi- 
nis fuerit, tabernas aut diversoria, ad comessandum, aut bibendum, 



9 

accedat, nisi ad parentes, curatores, nutricios, aut hujusmodi accersitus 
fuerit. 

(7.) Null us scliolaris, quicquam q d Lex denarios valeat nullo paren- 
tum, curatorura, aut Tutorum approbante emito, vendito, aut commu- 
tato. Qui autem sec us fecerit, a Rectore aut Tutore, pro delicti 
ratione, multabitur. 

(8.) Scholares inter Se venacula lingua intra Collegii limites nullo 
prsetextu utitor, nisi ad Oratiouem autaliud aliquid exercitiuin publicum 
anglice habendu evocati fuerint. 

(9.) Siquis scholariura a precibus aut praelectionibus abfuerit, nisi ne- 
cessitate coactus, aut Tutoris nactus veniarn ; admonition?, aut aliusmo- 
di, pro Rectoris aut tutoris prudentia, poenae, si plus quam semel in 
hebdomade peecaverit, erit obnoxius. 

(10.) Nullus scholaris quavis de causa (nisi pra?mon strata et appro- 
bate Rectori aut Tutori suo) a studiis statisve exercitiis abesto : ex- 
cepta semi-hora jentaeulo, prandio vero sesqui-hora, concessa; nec-non 
coenas usque ad horam nonam. 

(11.) Siquis scholarium ullam Dei, aut hujus collegii legem, sive 
animo perverso, seu ex supina negligeutia violarit, postquam fuerit bis 
admonitus, gravioribus, pro Rectoris aut Tutoris prudentia, poenis 
coerceatur. In atrocioribus autem delictis, ut adeo gradatim proceda- 
tur, nemo expectet. 

(12.) Quicunque scholaris, probatione hab.ita, poterit sacras utri- 
usque instrumenti Scripturas de textu originali Latine interpretari, et 
logice resolvere ; fueritque naturalis et moralis philosophise principiis 
imbutus ; vitaque et moribus inculpatus ; et publicis quibusvis comitiis 
ab inspectoribus et Rectore collegii approbatus, primo suo gradu 
possit ornari. 

(13.) Quicunque scholaris locum habuit communem, scriptamque 
synopsin vel compendium logicae, naturalis aut moralis philosophiae, 
arithmetics, geometriaB, aut astronomic, exhibuerit, fueritque ad theses 
suas defendeudas paratus ; nec-non originalium, ut supra dictum, est 
linguarum peritus ; quern etiamnum morum integritas ac studiorum 
diligentia cohonestaverint, publicis quibusvis comitiis probatione facta, 
secundi gradus, magisterii nimirum, capax erit. 

(14.) Unusquisque scholaris harum ordinationum exemplar, a Rec- 
tore et aliquo Tutorum subscriptum, sibi comparabit, priusquam in 
collegium admittetur. 

(15.) Denique Quicumque admissi sunt in collegium dictis Ordina- 
tionibus subjectionem suam subscribendo significabunt. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 908 940 P 



